I have a guest booked for the very lucrative St. Patrick's Weekend in Savannah. This is a huge deal in our town, and all Airbnb hosts, BnB's, and hotels boost their rates for the celebration. In Feb. I got a booking from a couple celebrating their retirement that weekend. The perfect guest for a party weekend. They assured me they are far from noisy party-animals.
Today, I received this email: "With the new CDC guidance for cautions about people over 60 traveling, we need to cancel our reservation. We are scheduled to arrive on Friday 3/13 and depart on Monday 3/16. Please tell us the process for cancellation."
I have my cancellation policy set as moderate, so I will have the guest go ahead and cancel. Hopefully I will be re-booked pretty quickly. Savannah for the time being seems to be holding strong against Coronavirus, but I can understand this guest's fears since the event attracts people from all around the world. If I don't get another booking to fill that spot, I'm out a significant amount of revenue.
I would like to see Airbnb's extenuating circumstances policy broadened to the US at best, or at least for those over 60 or with medical issues. We are not seeing the entire picture of cases here, and fear and misinformation are running rampant.
Here is a link to an article on CNN discussing the recommendations to keep people over 60 from traveling. https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/06/health/coronavirus-older-people-social-distancing/index.html
